New ag venture support program

View the project final report

• 2006 annual report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: decision support system, extension, workshop, technical assistance
• Farm Business Management: whole farm planning, budgets/cost and returns, feasibility study, agricultural finance, market study, risk management, value added
• Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, analysis of personal/family life, community development

1. A majority of Wayne County farmers indicate that the next generation of their family will probably not be farming (62 percent, according to a 1994 Wayne County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board survey).

2. There is an identified interest in starting a small farm business, and there are approximately 5500 parcels of land in the county that are between 10 and 70 acres, many of which have been subdivided from working farms.

3. In the last few years, as towns in Wayne County have updated their comprehensive plans, the role of agriculture is highlighted significantly more than in previous plans. For example, the proposed Town of Ontario comprehensive plan update contains nine pages of text regarding agriculture compared to the previous plan that had one paragraph.

To address these problems, Wayne County will develop a New and Beginning Farmer Resource web page that brings the many existing resources to one easily accessed point of information.

The county will also offer the “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” workshop for rural and suburban landowners, and use the American Farmland Trust “Planning for Agriculture” workbook and a farmer panel to train town Planning Board and Zoning Board members on agricultural issues as they relate to zoning law.